A few weeks ago there was an article about board games on this blog. This week I would like to tell you about one specific genre of board games - wargames and especially about one of them called Little Wars.
Wargames
Probably you’ve heard about those geeky people who gather in dark cellars or attics, put armies of tiny metal or plastic soldiers (each and everyone must be carefully hand painted before!) to the table and try to kill their opponents’ armies of those tiny figurines. Sounds creepy but probably you have such gamers among your friends as this is a very popular hobby. Unfortunately also a very expensive and time consuming (assembly of models and especially painting them) one.
One thing is sure. Wargames are not for everyone. Most of them have complicated rules and because they are strategy games rules are just a beginning. To show superiority above your opponents you have to not only master the rules but also learn to think like a military officer. Shoot to kill, acceptable losses, the end justifies the means, etc.
If you heard about wargames you probably heard only about those most popular ones with elves and dwarves and other unicorns like Warhammer.
Or maybe you’ve heard about this game about orcs in space and some elves from future called Eldars and marines hailing 40.000 years old Imperator called Warhammer 40.000?
Those games are cool. Really cool. But I don’t want to talk about them this time. We will go back in time to the game which started all of it. Or at least started using miniatures closely representing real soldiers in wargames.
H.G. Wells
Herbert George Wells is a well known writer who lived at the turn of XIX and XX century. You probably know him for one of his books The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds. If you even don’t know his books I bet you’ve seen a movie adaptation of one of these books. But let me show you one H.G Wells’s book to you you probably never heard of…
Little Wars
Little Wars or Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys’ games and books as it is known in its full title was written by H.G. Wells in 1913 and is one of the first attempts to codify rules for fighting battles with toy soldiers.
Wells shows a way how to prepare scenery to the battle and describes how to play games in an organized way. Little Wars rules allows to use infantry, cavalry and artillery. Players can perform simple movement actions, hand to hand combat and shooting. What’s much different in Little Wars in comparison to modern wargames concentrate on physical aspects. In little wars if you want to shoot artillery you have to actually shoot it. Wells recommended using spring loaded cannons with soft munitions.
If you would like to you can take a look at this book at Project Gutenberg website.
Comments
Anyway when I was a child one of my friends played Warhamer and of course gathered the figurines and I always liked the way they looked but I never got into all that and I don't think I would now. I recently played a new game Star Wars Armada which I think works on a similar basis where you move ships instead of orcs and fight and I admit it was quite cool, but I don't think I would get into collecting ships now even though I really like Star Wars. I gathered a lot of stuff as a kid and got rid of it while growing up and I assume that "collecting" small things just stopped being fun (or practical for that matter) for me. Anyway I'm pretty sure I'll play Star Wars Armada again and I recommend checking it out :)
I've never heard of 'Little Wars' so thanks a lot for that information and for the link. I'm tempted to read this book.
I would like to spend so much money on such tiny figures for games. However, book looks interesting and I've added it to my list for holidays. Thanks for the link to Project Gutenberg!
Buildings looking very well and accurate. I can’t imagine how long game like this is prepared. I think that very very long. I admire not only solicitude, but also patience, perseverance and diligence people who not only created but also build this buildings and figure. It’ s amazing. It’s not only great realization, but often very good, intricate and expanded story. I’m not a gamer but I’m a fan for passion which must have the people who created games.
Nowadays there is a plethora of different types and sub-genres of wargames. Personally I'm quite fond of Warhammer 40k which is set in a dark, gothic sci-fi setting.
What's cool about most wargames is that they provide inspiration and something cool to do not only for the players, big thing is building your own sets, painting figurines and so on.
There are whole youtube channels focused solely on how to paint figurines.